Connect your PC to an Amstrad Sky Box !
Cielplus have developed a card to go in the "Interface" slot of your Amstrad Sky Digibox, which allows you to connect to a USB port on your PC and turn it into a PVR.
The card takes its power from the computer's USB port so there's no need for an ugly power brick. It is important to note that the USB port that'll be used on your PC must be USB 2; USB 1.1 is too slow for the satellite stream and is therefore not supported.
The interface allows you to watch those channels your subscription includes. It does not get around the smartcard's subscriptions. In the case of a receiver with no subscription then you will be limited to the free to air channels like BBC and ITV. Maybe this card is a good reason to subscribe to Sky? Finally you can use your Digibox in a way that suits YOU!
The card has been designed to work on the following receivers ONLY. Cielplus are testing others but at the present time these are the receivers that work. Model number is often found either at the rear or underside of the unit.
Amstrad DRX-100
Amstrad DRX-200
Amstrad DRX-300
Amstrad DRX-400
At £150 for the card it may seem expensive but not if you are paying Sky £10 a month for the pleasure of recording their programmes. At that rate it will pay for itself in just 15 months.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the big boys won't look kindly upon this idea which rivals the SKY+ system so maybe you'd better not wait too long before buying one.
(It's a little-known fact that Pace developed a Dolby Digital plug-in card and demonstrated it at the satellite exhibition in London around 1991. It was quietly dropped and never went into production - perhaps because somebody high-up had a word with Pace?)
Will the Cielplus card suffer the same fate? Technically, it looks as if nothing can prevent it from working - it relies on hardware not firmware in the Amstrad Digibox and can't be harmed by any firmware "upgrade" - but, politically, who knows?
